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Parliament Wednesday elected lawmakers to a council tasked with holding high-ranking officials to account, and approved a controversial measure to continue extrabudgetary government spending based on last year's budget for a period of three months.

At the outset of the morning session, MPs were elected to the Higher Council, the formation of which is mandated under Article 80 of the Constitution.

The members of the body, which consists of seven MPs and eight of Lebanon's highest judges, are voted on anew by each Parliament.

MPs amended the law from its original form in the 37-item agenda, extending the provision's use till the end of May, and Speaker Nabih Berri gave the government one and a half months to endorse the 2019 budget, after which Parliament will have the same amount of time to ratify it.

Successive governments and parliaments used the rule for 12 years between 2005 and 2017 instead of endorsing a budget.

Other MPs wondered aloud why the government had only held two sessions since its formation three weeks ago, none of which included any study of the budget.

Khalil noted he had asked MP Yassine Jaber to put forward the bill, which addresses an issue usually covered by state budgets.